Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Kevin Riley" <klriley AT alphalink.com.au>]

 A good question - dialect?, sound change?  Maybe Phoenician was less
phonemic than we think, although the Punic inscriptions support the
traditional understanding of the phonemic inventory of Phoenician.  But it
still argues against assuming that writing will be phonemic even in the
early stages of a script being adopted, which was my main point.

Kevin Riley
 
-------Original Message-------
 
From: Yitzhak Sapir
Date: 11/03/05 13:04:25
 
On 11/3/05, Kevin Riley wrote:
 
> The fact that the Phoenician letters
> seem to fit so well the consonantal structure of the Phoenician language
> makes it one of the wonders of the history of languages. As the witness of
> history is unanimous in ascribing this script to the Phoenicians I see no
> reason to doubt that, especially when it does not fit the Hebrew or
Aramaic
> languages as well.
 
How do we then explain the names Tyre as opposed to Sidon or Sarepta
(all spelled with a Tsade)?
 
Yitzhak Sapir